How to Create and Implement an Information Management Policy

As is invariably the case in technological advances, the many benefits of digital records are offset by significant risks. Chief among these risks is the cost of electronic discovery during litigation. E-discovery is the use of sophisticated sampling and search tools to mine databases for documents relevant to a lawsuit.

The more files there are to search, the larger a company's e-discovery costs are likely to be. Thanks to IT professionals' commitment to being excellent stewards of data, a company can have tens of thousands of backup tapes stored, each of which can contain 10 million documents – all of which may be subject to e-discovery. The result could be millions of dollars in e-discovery costs in the event of litigation.